Trump is set to unveil his budget outline today which reportedly calls for a massive increase in defense spending, which he is offsetting by calling for a massive reduction in EPA spending as well as spending on the State Department.
Here’s the lowdown:
HAPPENING TODAY: White House to send budget guidelines to federal agencies pic.twitter.com/RImdRF06WP
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 27, 2017
Here’s more:
NBC NEWS – Ahead of President Trump’s speech to Congress tomorrow night, his administration will release a budget outline Monday calling for a “massive” increase in spending for the military, intelligence, and homeland security, NBC’s Peter Alexander reports.
But to offset those hikes, the Trump administration will propose spending reductions in other agencies and social safety net programs. “Mr. Trump will demand a budget with tens of billions of dollars in reductions to the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department, according to four senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the plan.
Social safety net programs, aside from the big entitlement programs for retirees, would also be hit hard,” the New York Times says. Now remember, budget outlines are merely an administration’s wish list. Congress ultimately decides — with the president’s signature, of course — on how the money gets spent. But now more than one month into Trump’s presidency, we’re seeing what his budget priorities are — defense over diplomacy, homeland security over the safety net.
So this is what we predicted about Trump, that he’ll do some things we like and some things we don’t like.
While his outline will call for increasing defense and cutting the EPA and State Department spending, which is great, he’s also leaving the big entitlements of Social Security and Medicare alone.
Hopefully Congress will not just abide by these outlines, but will attempt to educate Trump on why these entitlements need to be reformed before they fail completely, so that we can get a more responsible budget passed.